If you haven't already heard the news, there is a group of people in our community who have organized opposition against the bond. I ask that you arm yourself with the facts. You deserve to know where the candidates stand. I support the bond, and as your Trustee, I will fight for wise investments that protect the taxpayers and help us maintain excellence in our schools.Our district is facing budget challenges that, if not resolved, are certain to affect long term educational policy, curriculum, facilities, teachers, our kids, and the community. Because of the way our school finance is structured, Eanes cannot thrive on general fund dollars alone, as more than half of each tax dollar goes to other districts. Raising taxes is an inefficient way to raise revenues and laying off teachers or eliminating extra-curricular programs to reduce expenses work against the goal of maintaining excellence in education. The bonds are a way to give us local control of local dollars, as we keep the money here in our district. That means bonds are critical to resolving our budget challenges. They allow us to improve our longest-lived assets, our buildings, such that they cost less to maintain, are more responsive to the needs of the teachers and students, are flexible to accommodate changes in technology and teaching methodologies, and provide opportunities for increasing revenue by leasing them out and better managing enrollment.It may be counter-intuitive, but to save money, we must spend money. Here is just one example of how that works:With bond dollars, our district installed turf fields at our campuses. That investment cost money up front (local dollars spent on local gain) to install the fields, but now we save money by not needing to tend to the grass. The M&O (maintenance and operations) dollars we would have spent on mowing and watering the grass and paying for the caretakers can now be spent on teachers. And these fields can be rented out after school hours and on weekends, generating more money that isn't subject to recapture by the state and can be used to pay for teachers.Using the same approach, we can use bonds to improve our facilities throughout the district, reducing costs, increasing revenues, and improving the educational experience for students and teachers within. The best news is that those investments will last long into the future, protecting our property values. That means bonds are a way to respect the taxpayers, as they will continue to gain from the investment even after our kids have graduated.As a licensed architect, I can offer useful insights and inform the dialogue regarding how we can more wisely invest in our district's facilities. As a mother with three kids in three schools, and a volunteer committed to engaging the broader community in important decisions, I will strengthen the connections between the EISD community and the school district so that when it is time for a vote, our community can come to the polls united in our support.Please inform yourself so you can vote with confidence on May 9th.Thank you,Julia Webber

I had fun joining Maverick for his lunch up at Eanes Elementary today. That campus is in dire need of renovations and maintenance due to enrollments which well exceed capacity and failed bonds which would have addressed many of the facility shortcomings. Never is the need more apparent than on a rainy day visit to the cafeteria. The campus was designed for less than 500 students and yet today is serving well over 650. The critical need for square footage additions to the campus did not make the list on the 2015 Bond, but thankfully the repairs to the existing canopy structure (so critical for our outdoor campus) did make the list. I am hopeful that our community will support this critical needs bond which will allow the Eanes Elementary children and staff to stay safe and dry at school. Vote YES on May 9th!

This morning I met with the Instructional Enrichment Committee for Eanes Elementary, on which I've served for 4 years and distributed over $120K in booster dollars to our EE teachers and EE campus. Raising booster money for our schools is hard work and takes a village of volunteers. My hat goes off to the EEPTO for raising the funds we need to fill the gap, and to the IEC volunteer members who then fastidiously and respectfully spend each one of those dollars, all with the goal of keeping our district excellent.

The IEC discussed plans for making improvements to the EE Mustang Room such that it can be used as multi-purpose space, available to both staff, students and volunteers. Paint. Furniture. Lighting. White boards.....things that would normally be encompassed within a bond measure. Our critical needs bond that was just called does not include funds for these improvements, and yet any EE parent volunteer or staff member can attest that it is clearly a critical need for our campus. I hope our community at large and our EISD parent community supports this bond in May. Every bond dollar we support, both now and in the future, equates to less stress on our booster parent volunteers. I'm all for that!